Schaeffer's wife, Edith (Seville) Schaeffer,
became a prolific author in her own right.[2] Schaeffer was also
the father of—initially a collaborator with, and after his death the object of
criticism from—Frank Schaeffer, an
author, film-maker and painter.

In 1948, the Schaeffer family moved to Switzerland and in
1955 established the community called L'Abri (French for "the
shelter").[1][6] Serving as both a
philosophy seminar and a spiritual community, L’Abri attracted thousands of
young people, and was later expanded into Sweden, France, the Netherlands, the
United Kingdom and the United States.

Family relationships

In contrast
to Schaeffer's own experience as a single child of a father with a third-grade
education and a depressed mother, he grew up with a drive to understand reality
in its complexity, including the glorious and tragic human realities. He was
deeply engaged in the lives of each of his four children, continuously
available to them, showing and explaining art, history, city and country life,
philosophy, Roman ruins and medieval and Renaissance efforts to civilize a
damaged human history. He enjoyed watching people, engaging them in
conversation and showing his children the joy and tragedy of human existence.
He laid out for them the philosophic foundations of societies without being
idealistic about any of them.[citation needed]

In Crazy for God, Schaeffer's son Frank presents a portrait of his
father that is far more nuanced and multi-dimensional than was suggested by his
public persona. He states, for example, that Schaeffer's primary passions in
life were not the Bible and theology but rather art and culture. "And what
moved him was not theology but beauty".[12] Schaeffer's son
claims he had frequent bouts with depression and a verbally and physically
abusive relationship with his wife, Edith.[13] Those in the inner
circle at L'Abri challenge Frank's account. Os Guinness, who lived with the
Schaeffers and was a close friend of both the younger and elder Schaeffer,
described Crazy for God as a "scurrilous caricature" and said,
"[N]o one should take Frank's allegations at face value."[14]

Apologetics

Schaeffer's
approach to Christian apologetics was primarily influenced by Herman
Dooyeweerd,[not in citation given]Edward John Carnell, and Cornelius
Van Til, but he was
not known to be a strict presuppositionalist in the Van Tillian tradition.
His approach to culture was heavily influenced by his friendship with Hans
Rookmaaker. In a 1948
article in The Bible Today, Schaeffer explained his own apologetics and
how he walked a middle path between evidentialism and presuppositionalism,
noting that "If the unsaved man was consistent he would be an atheist
in religion, an irrationalist in philosophy (including a complete uncertainty
concerning 'natural laws'), and completely a-moral in the widest sense."[15] J. Budziszewski summarizes
the article about this middle path approach by writing:

Presuppositionalists, he held, are right to assert that
the ultimate premises of Christian and anti–Christian systems of thought are
utterly at odds in relation to their origin. On the other hand, evidentialists
are right to assert that between Christian and anti–Christian systems of
thought there is always a point of contact in the shape of reality itself. The
reason for this point of contact, he argued, is that nonbelievers cannot bring
themselves to be completely consistent with their own presuppositions, and this
inconsistency is a result of what many call common grace and is in fact the
reality of God having made, and spoken into, a defined and unavoidable
creation. "Thus, illogically," he wrote, "men have in their
accepted worldviews
various amounts of that which is ours. But, illogical though it may be, it is
there and we can appeal to it."[16]

Schaeffer came to use this middle path as the
basis for his method of evangelism which he called Taking the roof off.[17] An example of Taking
the roof off in written form can be found in Schaeffer's work entitled Death
in the City.[18]Nancy Pearcey also describes two
books by Schaeffer, Escape From Reason and The God Who Is There
in this way:

In these books, Schaeffer explains the history of the
two-story division of knowledge, often referred to as the fact/value split. He
also describes his apologetics method, which combined elements of both
evidentialism and presuppositionalism.[19]

Influence
of Rushdoony

In the 1960s Schaeffer read the works of Reconstructionist theologian Rousas John Rushdoony with appreciation, and according to Barry Hawkins, "it is quite
likely that Schaeffer’s belief that the United States was founded on a
Christian base came in part from Rushdoony."[3] Schaeffer later lost
this fervor because Rushdoony was a postmillennialist
(holding the doctrine that the kingdom of God will be built on earth before the
second coming of Jesus) while Schaeffer was a premillennialist
(holding that the kingdom of God will only be ushered in with the second
coming). Further Schaeffer thought that Rushdoony’s system would require a
merger of church and state, which he opposed. He held that the principles, not
the actual details, of Old Testament civil law were applicable under the New
Covenant of Jesus. He wrote "The moral law [of the Old Testament], of
course, is constant, but the civil law only was operative for the Old Testament
theocracy. I do not think there is any indication of a theocracy in the New
Testament until Christ returns as king."[3]

Legacy

Today, roughly twenty-five years after his death (from
lymphoma), his teachings continue in the same informal setting at The Francis
A. Schaeffer Foundation in Gryon,
Switzerland. It is led by one of his daughters and sons-in-law as a small-scale
alternative to the original L'Abri Fellowship International which is still
operating in nearby Huemoz-sur-Ollon and other places in the world. On the other hand, Schaeffer's son Frank Schaeffer initially supported
his father's ideas and political program, but has since distanced himself from
many of those views and has converted to the Eastern
Orthodox Church.[20]

Institute
of Church Leadership

Francis Schaeffer’s work and legacy continues today. In
1978, Schaeffer asked a group of Reformed Episcopal Clergy to research his
thoughts and current trends, forming a church guild called “The Society of
Reformed Philosophical Thinkers” that later in 1988 merged with “Into Thy Word
Ministries,” also envisioned by Schaeffer, and then the remnants of the
“Charles E. Fuller Institute” in 1998 were merged forming, “The Francis A. Schaeffer
Institute of Church Leadership Development.” Its purpose is continuing the work
which started in Carmel California as a think-tank and Bible literacy project,
currently in Pasadena, Ca. This endeavor came into fruition the late 70's by
Schaeffer’s personal bible study at L’Abri and his lectures worldwide which
inspired a vision to strategize how to reach and train pastors and church
leaders to focus on Christ centered principles. The vision continues for over
thirty years and calls for a commitment to point the church back to
“true-Truth” and “true spirituality” onto the path of making disciples. For the
last twenty years they have been doing church and bible research in a deep
doctoral level, not snapshots and phone surveys and publish comprehensive
studies. And with ministry partners, develop comprehensive curriculums and
equipping helps for pastors, church planters and church leaders. “It is our
passion and directive to lead Christians away from our false perceptions and
into His way.”[citation
needed]

Schaeffer popularized, in the modern context, a
conservative, though not a fully Calvinist (Reformed) perspective.[citation
needed]

Political
activism

Francis Schaeffer is credited[by whom?] with helping spark a return to political activism among Protestant
evangelicals and fundamentalists in the late 1970s and early 1980s, especially
in relation to the issue of abortion. In his memoir Crazy for
God, Schaeffer's son Frank takes credit for pressing his father to take on
the abortion issue, which Schaeffer initially considered "too
political."[13] Schaeffer called for
a challenge to what he saw as the increasing influence of secular humanism.
Schaeffer's views were expressed in two works, his book entitled A Christian
Manifesto, as well as the book and film series, Whatever Happened to the
Human Race?.[citation
needed]

A Christian Manifesto

Schaeffer's A Christian Manifesto[22] was published in
1981. The name of the book is intended to position its thesis as a Christian
answer to The
Communist Manifesto of 1848 and the Humanist Manifesto documents of 1933 and 1973. Schaeffer's diagnosis is that the decline of
Western Civilization is due to society having become increasingly pluralistic, resulting in a shift "away from a world view that was at least
vaguely Christian in people’s memory... toward something completely
different". Schaeffer argues that there is a philosophical struggle
between the people of God and the secular humanists.[improper
synthesis?]

In a sermon also titled "A Christian
Manifesto", Schaeffer defines secular humanism as
the worldview where "man is the measure of all things," and in the
book he claims that critics of the Christian right miss the mark by
confusing the "humanist religion" with humanitarianism, the
humanities, or love of humans. He describes the conflict with secular humanism
as a battle in which "these two religions, Christianity and humanism,
stand over against each other as totalities." He writes that the decline
of commitment to objective truth that he perceives in the various institutions
of society is "not because of a conspiracy, but because the church has
forsaken its duty to be the salt of the culture." Schaeffer explains:[23]

A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied
countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state and hidden his Jewish neighbors from the German SS Troops. The government had abrogated
its authority, and it had no right to make any demands.

He then suggests that similar tactics be used to stop
abortion. But Schaeffer argues he is not talking about a theocracy:

State officials must know that we are serious about
stopping abortion,... First, we must make definite that we are in no way
talking about any kind of theocracy. Let me say that with great emphasis.
Witherspoon, Jefferson, the American Founders had no idea of a theocracy. That
is made plain by the First Amendment, and we must continually emphasize the
fact that we are not talking about some kind, or any kind, of a theocracy.[24]

Their critical comments were prompted, they wrote, by the
popularity of Schaeffer's book.[26] They suggested that
Schaeffer supports pluralism because he sees the First Amendment as freedom of
religion for all; and they themselves reject pluralism.[27] Pointing out
negative statements Schaeffer made about theocracy, North and Chilton then
explain why they promote it.[28] They extend their
criticism of Schaeffer:

"The
fact remains that Dr. Schaeffer’s manifesto offers no prescriptions for a
Christian society. We mention that merely in the interests of clarity, for
we are not sure that anybody has noticed it up to now. The same comment applies
to all of Dr. Schaeffer’s writings: he does not spell out the Christian
alternative.(pp. 127-28; emphasis North and Chilton)"

Influence on Christian
Conservatives

Christian conservative leaders such as Tim LaHaye have credited Schaeffer for
influencing their theological arguments urging political participation by
evangelicals.[29]

Beginning in the 1990s, critics began exploring the
intellectual/ideological connection between Schaeffer’s political activism and
writings of the early 1980s to contemporary religious-political trends in the
Christian Right, sometimes grouped under the name Dominionism, with mixed
conclusions.[citation
needed]

Sara Diamond and Frederick
Clarkson[30] have written
articles tracing the activism of numerous key figures in the Christian Right to
the influence of Francis Schaeffer. According to Diamond: "The idea of
taking dominion over secular society gained widespread currency with the 1981
publication of...Schaeffer's book A Christian Manifesto. The book sold
290,000 copies in its first year, and it remains one of the movement's most
frequently cited texts."[31] Diamond summarizes
the book and its importance to the Christian Right:

In A
Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer's argument is simple. The United States
began as a nation rooted in Biblical principles. But as society became more
pluralistic, with each new wave of immigrants, proponents of a new philosophy
of secular humanism gradually came to dominate debate on policy issues. Since
humanists place human progress, not God, at the center of their considerations,
they pushed American culture in all manner of ungodly directions, the most
visible results of which included legalized abortion and the secularization of
the public schools. At the end of -- A Christian Manifesto, Schaeffer calls for
Christians to use civil disobedience to restore Biblical morality, which
explains Schaeffer's popularity with groups like Operation
Rescue. Randall Terry has credited
Schaeffer as a major influence in his life.[31]

Frederick Clarkson explains that this had practical
applications:

"Francis
Schaeffer is widely credited with providing the impetus for Protestant
evangelical political action against abortion. For example, Randall Terry, the
founder of Operation Rescue, says: "You have to read Schaeffer's Christian
Manifesto if you want to understand Operation Rescue." Schaeffer, a
longtime leader in Rev. Carl McIntire's splinter denomination, the Bible
Presbyterian Church, was a reader of Reconstructionist literature but has been
reluctant to acknowledge its influence. Indeed, Schaeffer and his followers
specifically rejected the modern application of Old Testament law."[32]

Writings

Francis A. Schaeffer wrote twenty-two books, which cover
a range of spiritual issues. They can be roughly split into five sections, as
in the edition of his Complete Works (ISBN 0-89107-347-7):

A Christian View of Philosophy and Culture: The first three books in this block are known as Schaeffer's
"trilogy," laying down the apologetical, philosophical,
epistemological, and theological foundation for all his work.

The
God Who Is There: Deals with the
existence and relevance of God, and how modern man came to first distance
himself from, and ultimately disbelieve, God as revealed by the Bible.

Escape
from Reason: How the rejection of
the biblical God causes man to lose contact with reality and reason.

Genesis in Space and Time: Argues that
the historical (as opposed to literalist or figurative) view of Genesis
as historically true is fundamental to the Christian faith.

No Final Conflict

Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History

Basic Bible Studies: Biblical studies on the
fundamentals of the faith.

Art and the Bible

A Christian View of Spirituality

No Little People: Argues that
Christians should never despair of having a significant life of
realizations, small as they seem to be.

True
Spirituality: The spiritual
foundation for Schaeffer's work, as a complement to the theological and
philosophical approach of most other books. Useful for gaining a balanced
view of the whole of Schaeffer's life and ministry.

The New Super-Spirituality: Claims the
intellectual decadence of students and the counter-culture from the late
sixties to the early seventies can be traced back to the conformism of
their fathers, only with fewer moral absolutes, and predicts the
contamination of the church. Offers an analysis of Postmodernism.

In addition to his books, one of the last public lectures
Schaeffer delivered was at the Law Faculty, University of Strasbourg. It was
published as "Christian Faith and Human Rights", The Simon
Greenleaf Law Review, 2 (1982–83) pp. 3–12. Most of his writings
during his Bible Presbyterian days have not been collected, nor reprinted in
decades.

In addition to the five volume Complete Works
listed above there were also two books by Dr. Schaeffer published after his
death:

Films

Schaeffer was eventually persuaded to adapt his book How Should
We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture to film by Gospel Films, Inc. by CEO and executive evangelical media
producer Billy Zeoli who
pitched the idea of hiring Schaeffer's then recently married son, teenage
father, and painter Frank Schaeffer as a producer for
the film project. Zeoli was instrumental in providing the Schaeffers with
introductions to wealthy Americans evangelicals who would eventually bankroll
the How We Should Then Live film project.

The American distribution of the How Should We Then
Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture book, the U.S.
distribution of the film of the same title by Zeoli's Gospel Films, Inc., and
subsequent film tour in the United States by the Schaeffers was responsible for
bringing many evangelical Protestants into the then largely Roman Catholic public protest
movement against the United
States Supreme CourtRoe v. Wade decision, 410 U.S.113 (1973) supporting legal abortion in the United
States.

How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and
Culture (1976). Frank Schaeffer produced his father Francis
Schaeffer's film series, which was released with a book by the same title.

13.^ Jump up to: abSchaeffer,
Frank (September 2007), Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect,
Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It
Back, New York: Carol & Graf, ISBN978-0-7867-1891-7.

35.Jump up ^Hexham, Irving, "The Evangelical Response to the New
Age," in Perspectives on the New Age, edited by James R. Lewis & J.
Gordon Melton, State University of New York Press, Albany, New York, 1992, pp.
152-163, and especially p. 322 Note 16.

Hexham, Irving, "The Evangelical
Response to the New Age," in Perspectives on the New Age,
edited by James R. Lewis & J. Gordon Melton, State University of New
York Press, Albany, New York, 1992, pp. 152–63.